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Tim Reid, a self-proclaimed "dream chaser," rarely stops to sit and wonder what might happen with his projects. He focuses on the goal at hand and doesn’t concern himself with the trivialities of such questions as "can it be done?" If he hits an obstacle, he goes around it, over it, or under it; whatever it takes to get the job done. The result of this persevering spirit is Asunder. Shot in 22 days for under $2 million, it was the first feature film to be produced at his year-old, Virginia-based New Millennium Studios. Though resources were limited, as Executive Producer Daphne Maxwell Reid put it, "[it] looks like a $10 million film."
Reid, a mainstay in the entertainment industry for over three decades, directed and produced Asunder. He had been pleased with the critical acclaim he received for his directorial debut, Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored. However, he decided that he needed to approach filmmaking from another angle. He decided to move into a topic and genre completely different from his experience and background "and step into the edgy and disturbing world, strictly from a filmmaking point of view." He wanted the world to see "something unexpected from Tim Reid." Writing the Script When Martin Jones, general manager of New Millennium Studios and Asunder co-producer, read the script written by Eric Lee Bowers in February of 1997, he knew it was exactly what Reid was looking for. After Reid read the script, Bowers was contacted immediately. Bowers wrote the first version of Asunder approximately 3 — 4 years prior to Jones’ discovery of the script. It had started out as a love story between two couples called Best of Friends. However, when he shopped the romantic comedy around, the response was less than overwhelming. So, Bowers decided to make some dramatic changes to grab people’s attention within the first few pages. The result was the foundation of the script for Asunder. |
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The next step was casting for the film. Reid knew that he wanted Blair Underwood to play the role of the deranged character Chance Williams. "Blair is such a wonderful person, and often plays the ‘nice guy,’ so I knew it would be interesting to see him go to the other side. I wanted to see how far he would stretch."
Debbi Morgan, who plays Lauren Hubbs, the object of psychotic obsession for Chance Williams, says that she was particularly drawn to the project "because the film deals with human obsession, which is an intriguing element in our society right now. And I don’t think you’ve ever seen black characters portrayed in this kind of circumstance before." Reid wanted Morgan for the project after seeing her award-winning performance in Eve’s Bayou. He states, "I wanted the wife to have an edge, and I knew she’d be perfect. Often times we do ethnic pieces where the women come off as victims, and I didn’t want to do that type of movie. I needed someone with spunk and grit that could stand up to Chance Williams or anyone else that came after her. When I sent her the script, she immediately called back and said, "I want it. I may never get an opportunity to play a woman like this again."
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© 2002 Obsidian Productions, Inc
Underwood,
who returned to his hometown for the shoot, described the film as Fatal
Attraction meets Waiting to Exhale. "There are tones, feelings,
and flavors from those three movies, and we don’t often see that
in black cinema, especially with predominantly black leads."
